Wade Wharton’s Art Environment, #5

The Huntsville Times did a story this morning about Mr. Wharton (post 1, 2, 3, 4) and his art environment.

Portions of it:

Wade Wharton knows where he’ll be on July 23. That’s the day the artist will return to city court to show the progress that’s been made cleaning up his Nassau Drive yard.

Wharton appeared in Municipal Court Wednesday, after five months of inspections by the City of Huntsville’s Department of Community Development, citations for “junk” and an outpouring of support from people helping him clean up.

He was joined in court by Bill Haynes, Anna Blair, Dale Rhoades, Lynn Jones and others, who have seen his yard and want to make sure his art stays put.

For more than seven years, Wharton, 70, has been transforming discarded materials into pieces of art and displaying them in his yard.

In January, Community Development cited Wharton for what it called “junk.” Wharton received a summons to appear in court for “unlawful storage of junk.”

Jerry Galloway, Community Development director, has insisted that Wharton has never been cited for the art. Wharton disputes that claim.

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“I think we’ll be able to work things through,” Callaway told Wharton. “I would anticipate this (case) would be dismissed. Hopefully, we’ll be able to reach an agreement with Community Development.”

Callaway told Wharton he will have to clean up the “raw materials” such as scrap metal. But, Callaway said, the “creative work” can stay, adding it could become a “constitutional issue” if Wharton is forced to get rid of his art.

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Jean Mann from New Hope also left a really great comment yesterday on the H’ville Times breaking news piece that they did after the court appearance. It is here.